By ERIC MOORE
TRAGEDY struck on Saturday night when gunmen suspected to be kidnappers shot dead Mr. Samuel Okere, a father of four children and abducted his neighbour, Mr. Sunny Onuenze, a businessman.
The incidents reportedly occurred at an estate in Army range axis of Igbo-Etche in Etche Local Government Area, Rivers State.
Pentoks News gathered that the kidnap victim, Onuenze, deals on scrap metals in Mile Building Materials Market, while Mr. Okere (deceased) was a generator mechanic.
The deceased hailed from Ofeh community in Omuma Local Government Area, a neighbouring LGA to Etche council.
Okere’s death was confirmed by his Mrs. Peace Ulaku Samuel, when she spoke with journalists on telephone.
According to her story, the gunmen stormed their residence at about 7pm, shortly after her husband had returned from the business and released several gunshots.
She said though her husband was within the premises, nobody knew that the gunmen had killed him and fled, kidnapping his neighbour.
Mrs. Samuel said while Mrs. Onuenze was crying that they gunmen had kidnapped her husband, she took was wailing and searching for her husband because nobody noticed any trace of him after the attack.
She narrated: “I started calling his line; at that initial time, the line was ringing but nobody picked. More than six to seven times, the phone rang without picking. My own thought was that he doesn’t want to pick as perhaps he is hiding so that nobody will hear him.
“So later, I heard they kidnap one of our neighbours. Later everybody started coming out, all the landlords. I came out again, I did not see my husband.
“So, I started telling them I have not seen my husband, everybody said he will come back. So, the woman who they kidnapped her husband was crying that they have kidnapped her husband.
“I was waiting for him with the kids.I stayed till past 12 midnight.One landlord now called me that I should enter inside that my husband will come back in the morning.”
According to her, in the morning of Sunday, a search was conducted by residents and in the process, they found his corpse in a farmland within the estate.
It was gathered that the incident was later reported to Umuebule Police Division in Igbo-Etche in charge of the area, while the corpse had been deposited in an undisclosed morgue in his place, Omuma LGA.
The Rivers State Police Command has not confirmed the incident, but further report said the suspected kidnappers had established contact with the family of the abducted victim, Onuenze.
But, the source did not disclose what the gang was demanding.